


If you're not going home,

by Houseofmalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21767170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Houseofmalfoy/pseuds/Houseofmalfoy
Summary: Written for the Hogwartsonline prompt "If you're not going home for Christmas, neither am I."Close friendship between Rodolphus and Narcissa in their sixth year.Warning for mentions of transphobia.
Relationships: Rodolphus Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	If you're not going home,

“Your name’s on the list of students who’ll stay here.”

Rodolphus doesn’t greet her before making his statement, when he’s taken a sprint to catch up on her from wherever he’d been before. Narcissa doesn’t look at him when she answers. “You’d almost think I put it there.”

She’s dressed in a dark grey cloak with fur coating, taking a walk along Hogwarts’ grounds to clear her head a little. Being interrupted, even by the friend she considers a brother, hadn’t been part of her plan. Still Narcissa smiles when he grins at her, and removes her earmuffs when he speaks again. 

“Funny you should say that. I’d come to the same conclusion.”   
“Aren’t you hilarious.”

Rodolphus’ face turns more serious when he’s done chuckling, and in a familiar gesture he wraps his arm around her waist, looking at her with a hint of concern in his eyes. “Why?”

“You know why.”

“I knew why last year,” he responds, and Narcissa rolls her eyes at him. Rodolphus doesn’t let it stop him. “Last year, when you were in the middle of— changing, and your mother only stopped screaming at you long enough to yell at Cygnus for letting you.”

He’s never been subtle. 

Narcissa doesn’t mind it, really. They’ve known each other for a decade already and she knows him better than she knows herself sometimes, she knows the way he speaks and she knows what he means and right now she knows that as positively harsh as that came out he has all the best intentions. 

He’s always been on her side, no matter what. Just as she’s always been on his. 

Rodolphus stops walking when she does, his left hand playing with the rim of neatly tailored winter robes, and he looks at her with a look of genuine concern, genuine care for her and her well-being, and while she’s used to it from him she’s touched regardless. He always cares, but there’s plenty of times where it feels like he’s the only one that does. 

“Mother has stopped yelling.” Narcissa says, her voice carefully kept aloof despite being well aware that he knows her better than that. 

Druella has stopped yelling, it’s not a lie. Eventually it got through to even her  _ mother  _ that there really was no turning back for her, no matter how Druella could scream about duty, the family name, her reputation. Narcissa had changed her name, changed her appearance and changed her future, and Druella had been forced to admit there would be no changing back. Not for the world. Certainly not for the family.

She remembers the last time her mother spoke a word to her. A venomous and ice cold ‘Alright then.’ that had been directed more at her father than at Narcissa herself but that she counted as the last words to her either way. 

That had been over the easter holidays earlier this year. It was December now. 

“She talks to my father, about me. I’m… Excluded from the conversation if she is involved. It’s no matter. With Andy- well, you’ve heard, even if I’m not home, there is plenty to be disappointed in this season, and with Bella’s engagement— ”

She gives Rodolphus a pointed look, and he runs a hand through his hair with a shake of his head. She knows very well he’s not thrilled about that arrangement. She loves her sister, but can’t blame him in the slightest.

“Mother will have plenty to talk about without my presence, how did she put it,” Narcissa rolls her eyes before she’s even finished, “reminding her of her failures.”

The arm around her waist tightens at that, and she smiles. 

“Your mother’s a cunt.” Is all Rodolphus really says, and he brings it with such casual sincerity that it sounds as if it’s the most logical conclusion to be drawn here, as if there’s no question to his words. It makes Narcissa snort in response. Snort. She never does that. 

She’s sixteen years old, nearly seventeen, he’s turned seventeen two months ago, and it’s their sixth year at Hogwarts. The war’s already started and somehow it doesn’t yet feel like the biggest problem they have in their lives. Narcissa’s grown up with him, and she can’t quite imagine distancing herself from this boy she considers her brother anytime soon. 

If he says her mother’s a cunt, she can laugh at that and not argue. 

“So, what do you propose we do over the holidays?” 

His next question makes her raise her eyebrows. “We?” Narcissa asks, prodding him to elaborate as if she doesn’t already have a feeling what he’s done. Salazar, he’s not really going to- 

“Yeah, of course. If you’re not going home for Christmas, neither am I.”

Rodolphus says it like it’s the only thing in the world that makes sense. 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Narcissa says, because as casual as he says it, it makes no sense at all. He scoffs. 

“Ridiculous? Me? You’re hurting me, Cissa.” Rodolphus laughs when she, playfully, tries to shove him away. He turns more serious almost immediately. “If you don’t want to go home, considering everything, that’s fine. But you’re not gonna spend the holidays alone.”

She starts walking again, not to get away from him but because she needs something else to focus on besides this kindness that she’s not unfamiliar with but still finds hard to accept, even from him. Narcissa smiles, still, when Rodolphus walks with her and continues on without forcing her to answer first. 

“We can claim the best sofa in the common, get the elves to bring us whatever we want, maybe work on Flitwick’s essay but I wouldn’t estimate our chances too high, and for boxing day we go to my parents for dinner.  _ Maman  _ adores you, I’ve owled already.”

“You’ve— ” Narcissa wants to argue with him, but he’s grinning at her with triumph and she can only laugh. “Of course you’ve owled her already… Sweet Salazar.” 

She doesn’t like to be treated as if she’s fragile, as if she needs help or saving, as if she’s in need for someone to look after her at all times. It frustrates her to no end, usually, but Narcissa can’t help but smile at her friend. 

It’s not like Rodolphus to feel the need to ‘save’ her, and he knows so much better than to think she’s fragile. He just cares. He always has and she can already tell that he always will. 

So Narcissa shakes her head anyway, but she’s smiling more genuinely than anyone else in the castle has the privilege to see her do when she tells him “thank you, Rodolphus,” and means it. 

“Don’t mention it. Always on your side, you know that.”


End file.
